Hungarian parties say EU needs to change after Brexit

Brussels, June 28 (MTI) – Hungarian political parties said on Tuesday after an emergency session of the European Parliament that Britain’s vote to leave the European Union was a message that the bloc needed to change.

The most important task the “EU27” will face after Britain’s exit will be to regain the trust of the European people and put together meaningful reforms, the ruling Fidesz party’s EP group said after the body approved a resolution pressing the UK to immediately invoke article 50 and start negotiations on its exit. “We need to be self-critical and rethink the [EU’s] flawed immigration policy, which was one of the main issues of the campaign in the UK,” the group said in a statement. They called for “well-timed and realistic” answers to the crises facing the EU and said that the bloc’s policies should be brought more in line with the expectations of European citizens.

Socialist MEP István Ujhelyi said the resolution passed by the EP also acknowledged that the EU needed to rethink the way it should function in the future. The bloc must strengthen its stability, sustainable growth and the protection of its citizens, he said.

Jobbik MEP Zoltán Balczó criticised the resolution for failing to mention the need to restore the national sovereignty of member states. The document does, however, express the need to strengthen economic and monetary union as well as the bloc’s common foreign policy, which Balczo said hinted at plans for an EU “superstate”.

Benedek Jávor, MEP for the small opposition Dialogue for Hungary (PM), called on the European Commission and the European Council to do everything in their power to safeguard the right to free movement of labour and represent as best they can the interests of EU citizens working in the UK. He said the British referendum indicated the need to form a “stronger, more democratic and more transparent union” that can offer credible responses to the bloc’s “democratic deficit, problematic functioning and refugee crisis”.

LMP leader Bernadett Szél said Brexit had demonstrated the need for a swift change in Hungary’s economic policy. The uncertainty brought about by Brexit will limit the EU’s growth potential, she said. But EU leaders have not even attempted to fix the bloc’s structural problems or to fight for the trust of the people, Szél added.